Chapter 038:

Kiara drew both her breath and her bow in one fluid motion; the ambient noise of the forest which had surrounded her since first entering disappeared.

‘Just like what boss taught me,’ She reminded herself, forcing the world around her to slow to a crawl while her eyes remained fixed on their target: a training dummy crudely planted a good distance away from her.

Feeling her lungs reach their limit, she paused momentarily before letting loose her breath. As the last of the air escaped her lips she felt the arrow release itself, barreling toward its target.

Thud!

“Yes!” She screamed excitedly after the arrow nailed the dummy right between the eyes causing its head to fall back.

Unfortunately, her celebrations were cut short after noticing that the dummy was issuing a hissing sound while expelling a fine white powder.

She moved forward to investigate but stopped after noticing a faint, unpleasant yet familiar scent.

“Arin!!!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, scaring the local wildlife away in a scamper.

The sound of something hitting the ground forcefully brought her attention to the back where she spotted Arin lying in a heap, seemingly having just fallen from a tree.

“Why did you fill the dummy with garlic powder again?” She spat, completely disregarding the young man’s plight.

For his part, Arin did not seem to mind much as he stood up with ease and began dusting off the leaves sticking to him. “Did it for realism,” he answered off-handedly.

Momentarily taken aback, Kiara scowled before placing both hands on either side of her hips looking very much like a fed-up mother.

“How is Garlic powder realistic?” She asked.

In response, Arin shrugged. He looked down momentarily before looking up again and smirking a bit. “I must say, Kiara,”

The young woman’s eyes opened wide before narrowing in suspicion, ‘He never calls me by my name,’

“You are pretty ugly today too,” He continued with a bright smile.

A vein popped on her forehead as Kiara approached Arin with a kind smile on her face and a crude dagger at hand.

Unfortunately for her, the bloodlust coursing through her made her unaware of the innocuous pile of leaves she had just stepped on.

Following the crunch issued by the leaves, a thud made her tilt her head. ‘Something fell from the tree?’ And before she could think further she was already upside down and hanging from a rope wrapped around her ankle. “Arrrrriiiiiiin!” She shrieked and struggled, causing her body to sway. Soon she began feeling nauseous.

“Pretty good,” Arin observed. “The rope is pretty good quality considering it isn’t snapping despite the extreme weight,”

Kiara finally snapped after that and she quickly pulled the bow off her back and an arrow out of her quiver before taking aim. A breath in and then out. The released arrow easily flew past the rope slicing it in two.

She landed gracefully on her feet and retook aim, letting loose an arrow.

This series of actions, though long in description, happened over the course of a second, which was why Arin failed to react even as the arrow flew centimeters from his face and drilled itself into the tree he stood in front of.

“Oops, I missed~” Kiara exclaimed, batting her eyelashes.

Arin only reacted after noticing her knock another arrow into her bow. He immediately tossed his body back and into a bush.

Unbothered, Kiara let loose the arrow and it disappeared into the bush after Arin. Disappointed in the lack of a scream, she readied another arrow. “Come out, come out little blacksmith. Christen the arrows you made me with your blood,”

“I already Christened them with my sweat and tears,” A monotonous voice replied.

Surprised by the fact that the voice came from above, Kiara arched her neck and looked upward just in time to catch a wild-eyed Arin jumping down a tree at her.

She aimed, but hesitated, allowing him to get the jump on her.

She shrieked again after feeling his knee digging into her back. “What is wrong with you?”

“Since it held your weight, this rope should be strong enough to bind you,” Arin noted to himself while tying Kiara’s hands together before doing the same with her feet.

Done with his job, he dusted off his hands and turned to walk away.

“Hey, where are you going?!” A grating voice followed him, causing him to pause.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“Are you really going to leave me like this?”

Arin nodded after a moment of consideration and began rummaging around the sack tied around his waist.

Finally finding what he wanted, he lazily tossed a bunch of grass toward Kiara who blinked in astonishment.

“What are you doing?” She couldn’t help but ask.

“Lemon grass, it’s a natural bug repellent,”

Again feeling the blood lust overcome her, Kiara reached for her dagger when a voice sounded behind them both.

“What are you guys doing?” Rafiel asked after happening upon the scene of his hog-tied sister being sprinkled with grass. ‘Is he going to cook her?’ He thought mildly.

“Oh, Wisker, how goes the training?” Arin asked, continuing to sprinkle some grass.

Ever since Timothy explained what Wiskers were to him, Arin had been using that word to address him, but Rafiel wasn’t bothered much by it.

“Pretty good,” He replied “I can fire off more attacks now. Firepower isn’t improving but Boss says that will come with time,” He crouched and helped his sister untie herself.

“Let’s go, the tournament should be starting,”

“What, you worried for Boss?” Kiara asked grumpily while giving Arin a threatening glare.

“No, it's his opponents I worry for,”

………………………………………………..

The sound of enthusiastic babble deafened Alexander and he could only sigh when faced with a hoard of people either cheering or jeering, he couldn’t tell which.

It was, by every definition, too early in the morning for this much noise.

An hour ago, he was once again dragged out of bed by Carson’s goons and made pretty by a bunch of maids before being stuffed in a carriage and tossed into Unity.

Now here he existed, in the clearing where the maze had once stood; on a new raised platform. His colleagues, 100 eager students, stood beside him all doing their best to put up a strong front, trying not to embarrass themselves in front of their excited family members.

“Greetings, everyone,” It was then that a calm but imposing voice spread far, calming the rabid crowd somewhat. Headmaster Almer stood floating above the raised platform with his hands folded behind his back looking to all like a god descended.

‘Hmph. vainglorious old fuck,’ Alexander spat with disdain. At the same time, he understood the geezer’s motives; after all, yesterday’s incident did indeed do major damage to Unity’s newly minted reputation. Presenting a Special Grade magician before the crowd would at least buy them back some credibility.

‘But really, with two kings and their people backing the Academy, what more credibility was needed?’ He thought, turning upward to look toward the flying ships from Graveclaws where all the important people sat, floating loftily above the crowd.

That being said, it wasn’t as if the crowd was being mistreated; these were after all the upper echelon of both kingdoms so of course all the necessary amenities were provided. These included pretty servers walking about the crowd offering many vices. Furthermore, every cluster of families was offered a viewing crystal which allowed them a better view of the raised platforms, in case they were too far away.

With that in mind, Alexander looked toward one of the many poles studded across the raised platform. Atop the pole, sat a familiar crystal.

“And thus, I must thank you for your patience and understanding,” Headmaster Almer continued, he had been talking for a while, but Alexander wasn’t really listening.

“Today’s tournament will consist of twenty-five matches. But as the observant among you may have noticed, there are a hundred of our fine students; with that in mind, we will be starting things off with a qualifying round,” Shortly after his words died out, a faint rumbling appeared in the earth around the students, birthing a new wave of excited chatter from the crowd.

“I don’t get it, we’re only a hundred, why do we have to go through qualifying rounds?” Big Ed asked, holding back a yawn.

“In a single-elimination tournament with 100 participants, there would be 99 matches to determine the winner. Let’s say each match is about 3 minutes, that would be 297 minutes, or about five hours, not including breaks or grace periods,” Slim Grim explained back dutifully. The beautiful Pricilla, who was standing beside him, seemed impressed by Grim’s knowledge.

Alexander cringed at the sight of this and took a step away to distance himself.

“You’re friends are interesting!” Miranda said with a soft giggle, following after him.

Looking into her golden eyes, Timothy gave a toothy grin before pretending to not know Ed and Grim.

As the group continued to chatter, the raised platform suddenly began elevating such that they were now at a noticeable height of three meters.

At some point, the headmaster had finished his speech, and now Professor Minerva was the one doing the talking with a group of Earthen Magicians behind her, casting their spells.

“The qualifying rounds are simple,” The old woman spoke kindly, “The arena you now stand on will shrink continuously in diameter till only twenty-six students remain. Those standing on top of the platform by the end will officially enter the tournament. Good luck to all,” After her short explanation, the crowd began cheering loudly. Everyone seemed to love the show.

The platform, which had stopped rising, began shrinking. The speed was slow but noticeable.

“She didn’t say anything about fighting other students…” Grim pointed out sharply.

“Nothing to be said,” Timothy responded.

“We in this together?” Ed chipped in.

“Sur-” Alexander was about to agree when Miranda suddenly leaped off the edge, elegantly landing on her feet with her knees bent to minimize the blow.

“Sorry guys, but I’m not really interested in the tournament, good luck!” She chirped before looking toward Timothy, “I’ll see you after you win, OK?”

“Got it,” Alexander replied with a wink and a wave of his hand. He could feel eyes burning holes into the back of his head, ‘Good to know the little hero is doing well,’

“And that is the second reason for the qualifying rounds. To give students a choice not to participate,” Grim continued.

Priscilla nodded her head at this and seemed to consider jumping herself, but ultimately decided against it. She gripped the sword at her waist with determined eyes.

“Well, let’s get to it,” Timothy announced and turned toward the center of the ring. Around him, he could see several students hopping out of their own volition.

‘I wonder if they consider losing the qualifying rounds more honorable than not participating at all…’ Partaking in his idle thoughts, he and his group kept making way for the center; along the way, fights started breaking out and with the ring eclosing around them, the density of students started increasing.

At some point, Grim had broken off the main group with Priscilla in tow.

“That bastard’s up to something again,” Ed said with a sigh, conflicted over whether to leave too.

Just as Alexander was about to say something, a loud voice spoke to them.

“Hey there, You’re the guys from the maze,” It was Mark Kingsly with his sister beside him.